Something nice: I got an email yesterday from April McClure. I believe April was finishing her junior year at Eureka my last year there, or maybe she was a senior. She was a music major and a member of the Madrigal Singers. She's now married with a young baby, and she's a pastor at a small church in northern Illinois.

Here's a snippet from her email:

Many, many times I have wished that I would have been a better student under your tutelage, and that I would have been able to appreciate your leadership while it was available. I thank you for it, if tardily...

It is so gratifying, after all these years, to be appreciated for a contribution I made to the life of one of my students.

Something awful: Sandra Day O'Connor has resigned from the Supreme Court. This is not the same as Rehnquist resigning. Whoever replaces O'Connor will most likely move the court solidly to the right.

When Bush got reelected and I considered moving to Canada, everyone said by the time I could actually get residency there he'd be out of office. But his legacy on the Supreme Court will survive him, and this frightens me no end.

I'm reading The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. In this novel, Charles Lindbergh is elected President in 1940, defeating FDR. Lindbergh establishes an agreement with the Hitler regime and keeps us out of the war. Some Jews flee to Canada, which accepts them with open arms. It's not so easy now. But something keeps making me think I should do it.

Cheers to Canada for legalizing same-sex marriage! (And Spain too!)